Skip to main content

Fireworks - Sightseeing at Night

Fireworks
Fireworks between 1977 and 1982 would release five studio albums, and one live recording. Then after this one the "band" would break up. From what I've read Marty McCall was Fireworks. The members of the "band" would come and go and each album would change. Guitarist Jerry Gaston was fairly consistent though, and on Sightseeing at Night co-wrote a number of the songs with Marty.

Marty was a respected singer, and when Michael Omartian produced Christopher Cross' debut, I remember seeing Marty's name on the back cover as a backing vocalist. I knew about Fireworks, I'd just not heard them. 

The early '80s was an interesting time for Christian music. The hippie dippy side of the Jesus movement was embracing the business side of the equation, and even the major labels were paying attention and either working out co-distribution arrangements or putting albums out on their own imprint. For Fireworks, being able to say you were on a major like MCA, even if it was MCA Songbird was a pretty big deal, and I suspect there was some pressure to deliver a hit.

Now, I'm not sure I spelled it out earlier, but this was my first experience with Fireworks, and frankly I was pretty excited to hear what I'd missed all those years ago. Pulling out the insert with the lyrics and credits there was also a small brag sheet as well.

The first thing that greeted my eyes was:

The Band: Fireworks:
The Voice: Marty McCall
The Music: Explosive

brag sheet
Okay, the hyperbole runs a little thick, but it's a brag sheet, it's supposed to be a little thick. It got thicker ... Sightseeing at Night is a kaleidoscpic burst of rock 'n' roll that's as commercial as any album I've ever heard on AOR or Top-40 radio. An excellent example of crossing all barriers - Kip Kirby Nashville Bureau Chief, Billboard Magazine.

Well, if this didn't get my hopes up nothing would.

Speaking of the band, other than Marty on vocals, and Jerry Gaston on guitars, there was Dave Kurfman on bass, and to my surprise Louie Weaver was on drums. From Randy Matthews to Petra that guy got around.

The album opens with "I Got News for You" and no, it's not a cover of an old Randy Stonehill song, it's an honest to goodness riff rock song. This was actually sort of unexpected. The song was pretty solid, but soon the album more of less settles down into middle of the road territory more than the harder edged AOR of Toto IV that also came out in '82.

There wasn't anything disagreeable here, it was pleasant, and yes one could argue there was just enough edge here and there to qualify as AOR. As to being commercial, that's a hard one to comment on as let's face it, striving to be commercial was almost the other side of the coin to being artistically credible. You were one of the other. You sold out, you were commercial. You stuck to your guns and principles and didn't sell records you were an artist.

Christian music was an already marginalized sub-genre with it's own goofy set of rules and expectations that had to balance ministry, artistry, and try not to suck (so much suckage, it was a terrible time for good music). I have to give it up though, Fireworks didn't sound terrible, from that perspective they were as commercial as anything out there. Funny how not sucking was the equivalent of being commercial.

back cover
I was always curious about Fireworks, and I'll be honest this was better than I expected, but let's be frank - there were no fireworks to speak of but I'll be giving it a few spins before I put it away.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure.  I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again.  I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...